1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a structure for mounting a printed circuit board (PCB) in an electronic appliance such as a computer and, more particularly, to a structure for detachably and slidably mounting a PCB in an electronic appliance, thus allowing a user to easily mount and remove the PCB to or from the chassis of the electronic appliance.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an earlier configuration of a computer, a chassis is provided in the housing of the computer and a plurality of elements such as a power supply, a hard disk drive, a floppy disk drive, and CD-ROM drive are installed on the chassis at predetermined positions. The chassis also supports a printed circuit board (PCB) which controls the operation of the above noted elements.
In a computer, a motherboard or the PCB is designed to allow a user to repair or upgrade the computer. In order to upgrade the computer, the existing PCB is removed from the chassis prior to being changed to a new one.
In order to improve the work efficiency while repairing or changing the PCB, the chassis has to be designed to allow a user to easily install or remove the PCB to or from the chassis.
One earlier structure for mounting a PCB in a computer has a plurality of mounting bosses which have the same height and are formed on predetermined positions of the chassis. The PCB is placed above the mounting bosses prior to being attached to the bosses by a plurality of set screws.
However, the above-noted mounting structure has problems in that it is necessary to insert or remove all of the set screws one by one in order to mount or remove the PCB on or from the chassis.
In another earlier structure for mounting a PCB in the computer, the PCB is designed to be slidably movable on the chassis.
In order to accomplish the above noted slidable structure, a slidable moving means having a locking part at a corner of the bottom end is mounted to the bottom surface of the PCB in the same direction as a sliding direction of the PCB. A locking lever having a rounded bay is mounted to the top surface of the outside edge of the chassis at a predetermined position in such a way that the lever is rotatable on the chassis.
The above-noted slidable mounting structure has problems in that the locking lever is rotatably mounted to the chassis through a shaft such that the lever may be accidentally removed from the slidable moving means when the chassis is leaned on its side.
It is therefore necessary to manually and precisely readjust the position of the locking lever when the slidable moving means is moved to mount the PCB to the chassis. This is inconvenient to a user. Furthermore, the structure does not have any means for locking the lever so that the structure fails to stably hold the PCB on the chassis.
The following patents each disclose features in common with the present invention but do not teach or suggest the specifically recited structure for mounting a printed circuit board in an electronic appliance in accordance with the present invention: U.S. Pat. No. 5,668,696 to Schmitt, entitled Carriei-Based Mounting Structure For Computer Peripheral Chassis, U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,542 to Malgouires, entitled Modular Automation Device With A Locking Member, U.S. Pat. No. 4,628,413 to Speraw, entitled Card Cassette Ejector Apparatus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,507 to Chatel et al., entitled Front Panels For Rack-Mounted Printed Circuit Boards, U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,528 to Cheng et al, entitled Connector With Ejector, U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,556 to Yamaguchi et al., entitled Lever-Coupling Type Connector, U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,513 to Hayashi, entitled Lever Of Lever Type Connector, U.S. Pat. No. 5,140,501 to Takahashi et al., entitled Mechanism For Inserting And Withdrawing Printed Board Unit Of Electronics Circuit Device, U.S. Pat. No. 5,541,809 to Kakizaki et al., entitled Electronic Equipments Chassis Made From Bent Sheet Metal, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,208 to Felcman et al., entitled Lever Apparatus For An Ejector Mechanism In A Personal Computer.